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In this study, pomegranate arils were dried by infrared dryer to find a suitable mathematical model, effective moisture diffusion coefficient and activation energy. The experiments were performed at four air velocity levels (0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1 ms^-1) and three infrared radiation levels (22, 31 and 49 W cm^-2). Experimental data with semi-theoretical and empirical models were evaluated to find the best model. Among the models, Midili's Model was selected based on R², χ² and RMSE criteria. Effective diffusion coefficient of pomegranate arils was in the range of 0. 4×10^-9 to 3.21×10^-9 m² s^-1. Activation energy was calculated by using Arheneus exponential model. The values of activation energy were determined in first method between 0.43 to 1.17 W g^-1 cm^-1 and second method between 1.1 to 0.72 W g^-1 cm^-1.  

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Drying behavior of two types of pomegranates as well as the effect of drying conditions on moisture loss trend and on effective diffusion coefficient of arils are discussed in this article. Also, an appropriate mathematical drying model as well as the activation energy of sweet and sour pomegranate arils, dried in vacuum and microwave driers are pursued and presented. Results of regression analysis of the studied models indicated that Midili and Page models exhibit the best fit to the data obtained for vacuum and microwave drying, respectively. Effective diffusion coefficient of pomegranate arils was estimated in the ranges of 0.74×10-10 to 52.5×10-10 m2 s-1 and 3.43×10-10 to 32.05×10-10 m2 s-1 for vacuum and microwave driers, respectively. Activation energy figures for the vacuum drier were 52.27 and 52.83 kJ while for microwave drier they were 17.22 and 23.83 kJ for the cases of sweet and sour variety pomegranates, respectively.

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Jujube (Zizyphus jujube Mill), a valuable medicinal plant, is consumed either as fresh fruit or dried product in Iran. Drying jujube guarantees a longer shelf time while preserving its quality to be used in medical and pharmaceutical industries. In this research paper, the influence of several drying conditions on the effective moisture diffusivity, activation energy, energy consumption and required specific energy in the drying of jujube is presented. Temperature levels of 50, 60 and 70 ºC and hot air velocities of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 (m s-1) were used as the treatments. Effective moisture diffusivity of jujube fruit during the drying process was in the range of 1.1532-5.1895×10-10 (m2 s-1) for the first period and 0.4036–2.3064×10-10 (m2 s-1) for the second period. Also, the values of energy of activation in both periods were determined to be between 34.97 and 74.20 (kJ mol-1). The energy consumption and the required specific energy for drying were in the range of 79.1- 92.46 (kW h) and 203.59 – 900.08 (kW h kg-1), respectively. Results show that energy consumption diminished when temperature increased at each air velocity, while it increased with increasing hot air velocity.

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Common drying systems, including hot air convection, infrared, vacuum and IR-convective were employed to investigate and analyze the drying process of mulberry fruits. To evaluate the effect of pretreatment on the drying phenomenon, samples were pretreated by being subjected to: microwaves, chemical preparation, mechanical as well as blanching approaches. Results revealed that the microwave pretreatment, integrated with IR-convective dryer required the lowest time needed for drying mulberries. Furthermore, the experimental data were fitted to semi empirical as well as theoretical models to achieve the most suitable function governing mulberry drying process. Eventually, Page Model proved to perform best with regard to its high coefficient of determination, low value of χ² and root mean square of error.

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In this research with utilization various neural networks models, the relationship between the amount of water production and the temperature of the vapor with different weather conditions, time of day and several water debit in desalination system equipped whit linear solar parabolic concentrator was investigated. The results showed that static and dynamic networks can be modeled the process of production fresh water with high accuracy. Static neural network can do the modelling process with higher speed than dynamic neural network. However it seems that the amount of error with using dynamic networks was reduced in process modeling. Coefficient of determination (R2) for training, validation and testing in static networks were 0.9898, 0.9899 and 0.9889, respectively. While coefficient of determination (R2) for training, validation and testing in dynamic networks were 0.9922, 0.9894 and 0.9901, respectively. Also the amount of mean square error (MSE) in static network for training, validation and testing was 0.0011, 0.0027 and 0.0024, respectively and for dynamic networks was 0.0018, 0.0007 and 0.0004, respectively. Comparison between dynamic and static networks show that the dynamic networks can be predicted the production of fresh water and vapor temperature according to changes in atmospheric parameters accurately than the static networks.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional properties and production of ultrasound yoghurt using collagen skin of Sangar. The results of collagen samples showed that the lowest reducind power was observed in normal collagen samples (0.2%) and the highest in collagen hydrolysis (5%) (P<0.05).The least antioxidant activity belonged to normal collagen (0.2%) and normal collagen (1%). The highest antioxidant activity was observed in collagen hydrolysis (5%) (P<0.05). The highest solubility belonged to the collagen hydrolysis sample (pH=4) and the lowest solubility belonged to the collagen hydrolysis sample (pH =10) (P <0.05).The results of tests of yoghurt samples showed that the pH of sample code 5 was significantly higher on day 1 and pH of treatments of code 2 (containing 1% of normal collagen) and 3 (containing 1.5% collagen hydrolysis) There was a significant low level of other treatments (P<0.05). Antioxidant activity of code 4 (containing 50% collagen + 50% capsule) was highest and antioxidant activity The samples were higher than the control sample.On the 14th day, the highest index of Associated Thiobarbituric acid belonged to the control (no collagen) and the least amount belonged to code 5 (containing 100% capsule). On day 1, it was found to be lowest in code 4 (50% collagen content + 50% capsule) and 5 (100% capsule contents). On the 14th day, the highest control group was observed and the lowest was observed in code 4 (containing 50% collagen + 50% capsule) (P<0.05). In both days, a significant difference was found in the color score the taste; odour of the samples were not observed. Only on the first day, the taste and odour of the code 2 sample were significantly lower than other treatments. (P<0.05). Treatment of code 4 (containing 50% collagen + 50% capsule) was introduced as a superior treatment.
Key Words: Yoghurt, Collagen, Microcapsulation, Pectin

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Drying is one of the most important post-harvesting processes with the aim of increasing the storage time. The present study investigates and compares color changes and shrinkage of red beetroot thin layers in four different drying methods (hot air flow, microwave, vacuum and freeze drying). The process of changing these two parameters was simulated by fitting to different models. The experiments were carried out in hot air and vacuum air dryers at three temperature levels (50, 70 and 90 °C), in microwave dryer at a power level of 180, 360 and 600 W, and in a freeze dryer at -50 °C. The results showed that the changes in the brightness index (L) and yellowness (b) relative to the time were increasing and the trend of changes in the red index (a) was decreasing. The slightest changes in the parameters of brightness, redness and yellowness (values is 0.74, 0.23, and 0.03) occurred in freeze drying, microwave and vacuum, respectively. The overall results showed that the highest amount of color change (ΔE) was 1.59 in drying by microwave and at 180 W, and the lowest drying rate was 0.76 in freeze drying. Also, shrinkage changes in sugar beet samples showed that the use of freeze dryer reduced the amount of shrinkage by 10-25% compared to the other three methods of drying. Also, modeling of color parameters and shrinkage showed that exponential models have higher ability to predict the process of color variation and shrinkage.

 

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The use of edible coatings can help reduce the undesired effects caused by the drying process of fruits and vegetables. In this study, the influence of two different edible coatings including basil and chitosan (0, 0.5 and 1 %) on drying kinetic, color, texture and antioxidant activity of apple slices were evaluated at different temperatures (40, 50 and 60 ˚C) in hot air oven and vacuum drying. The results showed that the use of different coatings in both drying methods increased the drying time. Fitting of different mathematical models on the experimental data showed that the Midili model for basil coatings and the approximation of diffusion model for chitosan coatings are able to predict the moisture content more accurately than other models. With increasing coating concentration or decreasing drying temperature the lightness, adhesiveness, cohesiveness and antioxidant activity enhanced. But, the redness, yellowness, brownness, total color difference and hardness diminished. Generally, basil and chitosan coating pretreatment could be considered as an effective approach to improve the quality of the dried apple fruit in drying industry.

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Now a day most countries are interested in renewable energy due to the many problems with fossil fuel use. One of the best types of renewable energies is solar energy and can be produced in electrical, thermal and hybrid forms by photovoltaic cells equipped with thermal collectors. In this research a systemLinear parabolic focusers equipped with photovoltaic cells were designed and simulated in Optic Ray Tracing and Solidworks software and compared with experimental results. The thermal collector was simulated in a photovoltaic-thermal hybrid system with two longitudinal and transverse arrangements with internal diameters of 8 to 14 mm at three discharge levels.Simulation results of two longitudinal and transverse arrangements showed that the thermal efficiency in the longitudinal arrangement was better than the transverse ones. and by increasing diameter from 8 to 12 mm the thermal efficiency increased and the thermal efficiency from 12 to 14 mm alignment of the pipes did not change much. Also by increasing the fluid discharge from 1 to 3 l/min the thermal efficiency due to the decrease in thermal losses and the electrical efficiency due to the decrease in temperature Photovoltaic cell surface increased. Comparison of the simulation results and the experimental evaluation showed that the maximum thermal and electrical efficiency for the data Simulations were 61.18% and 12.58%, respectively, and for field data is calculated 58.14% and 12.03%, respectively.

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The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of basil, sage and chitosan edible coatings on the physicochemical properties of microwave-dried apple slices. In this study, apple fruit slices were coated with basil, sage and chitosan in three concentrations (0, 0.5 and 1%) and dried at different microwave powers (90, 180 and 360 W). The drying kinetics, color, texture and antioxidant activity of apple slices were investigated. The analysis of the data indicated that the drying of the apple slices happened only in the range of the descending speed period. These data were fitted with 7 different experimental models, among the models, the most suitable models for basil, sage and chitosan coatings were Midili, Approximation of diffusion and Verma, respectively. Midili was able to predict moisture content more accurately than other models. Also, the amount of brightness, adhesivenes, cohesiveness and antioxidant activity increased with the increase of coating concentration and microwave power, but the amount of redness, yellowness, browning, general color change and hardness decreased. In general, edible coating is one of the new methods that increases the shelf life and quality of the final product. Therefore, it is recommended to treat fruits using edible coatings to increase the appearance quality and improve the color at the end of the drying process.
 

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Aims: Nowadays, people are exposed at large quantities of magnetic field due to industrialization of the environment; therefore, studying the effect of these fields on human health is very important. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic field on the quantity and structure of hemoglobin of employees in electricity industry.
Materials and Methods: The present experimental study was carried out in the employees of a power generation plant in Tehran in 2017. Using total population sampling method, 29 employees of exploitation department were selected as exposed group and 29 employees of administrative and support department were selected as unexposed group. The magnetic field intensity of the power generation plant was studied by NIOSH 203 method. Blood samples were collected from two groups of people; hemoglobin concentration in blood samples were evaluated by spectrophotometer and changes in hemoglobin structure were analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16, using the Mann-Whitney U test.
Findings: The mean of hemoglobin concentration in the exposed group (15.67±1.42) was significantly different from that of the unexposed group (17.31±3.03), so that the hemoglobin level of the exploitation department staff was lower than that of the administrative and support staff (p<0.0001). Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy showed significant changes in the 1413 and 11430cm^-1 between the exposed and unexposed groups.
Conclusion: Contact with extremely low frequency of magnetic field causes changes in hemoglobin quantity and its molecular structure in employees in electricity industry.

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Traditional celebrations and recreational activities are considered part of the Iranian historical identity. Ancient and medieval Persian sources have documented various types of these celebrations, suggesting the social commitment to such rituals. Apart from social identity, these tendencies could also bring dynamism and refreshment into the society. With the passage of time, despite many adversities imposed on social foundations, some of these ceremonies were redefined and retrieved as the national heritage. Of course, other forms of joyful ceremonies that were matched with new religious thought were added to the national heritage, as well. On the other hand, Iranian governments and rulers of the time also supported and promoted some of these rituals in accordance with their personal morale as well as political and religious attitudes, thereby contributing to their survival and continuity. In the Safavid era, the Iranian society was not different as a relative political stability and security allowed the continuity of these traditions. The present study intends to introduce the patterns and types of these celebrations. Thus, the main question of this research is: what were the forms of joyful ceremonies during the Safavid? Research data show that despite the fact that the Safavid period, at one time and other, was engaged in some civil or external wars, the social texture had a deep link with promising and recreational approaches and hence; there were various types of celebrations and ceremonies based on social traditions.